Episode 758

“Even so, I’d still like to hear the content from the lecture I missed.”

“Which lecture?”

“Uh… -Prophecies Most Likely to Drive You Mad-.”

“Hm? That’s a third-year lecture, isn’t it?”

“Exactly.”

Lee Han answered the senior’s question with a bitter tone.

“No matter how many schools you take, there’s nothing good about rushing through prophecy magic.”

The senior offered some sensible advice, then continued with a question.

“What kind of divination have you learned?”

“Last year, I mostly used stone casting.”

‘I see, it’ll be hard for him to keep up…’

Prophecy mages used divination to protect themselves.

Peeking into the future put a huge strain on the mind of a wizard.

Divination protected the wizard’s mind by breaking the future into uncertain and metaphorical fragments.

Instead of seeing the future directly, the mage peeked at mere shards, thus guarding themselves.

Of course, this came with drawbacks. The accuracy dropped, and the reading difficulty increased.

The stone casting used by first-year students last year was a relatively easy divination that let them answer simple questions, but even so, several had poor accuracy or suffered major magical rebounds.

The senior wondered if a junior who had only learned stone casting was ready for -Prophecies Most Likely to Drive You Mad-.

“Senior. Before that, may I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“…Why are you in the form of a golem?”

Lee Han could not hold back the question any longer.

No matter how rare the races at Einrogard may be, he’d never seen the bronze golem race before.

Since the senior was acting like it was nothing, as a junior Lee Han had tried to keep quiet, but he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Because of prophecy magic side effects.”

“Is there a spell among prophecy magics that turns you into a bronze golem as payment?!”

“That’s not it. When you peek at the future and have to pay a price, if you take it head on you could die. It’s better to stay in a bronze golem form for a while.”

“…I see.”

Lee Han thought he understood why the prophecy magic school had so few people, rivaling the dark magic school.

No matter how confident a senior might be, no one wanted to become a bronze golem or lose their sanity.

“Bronze golem sen… no, may I ask your name, Senior?”

“Ah. I can’t tell you.”

“?”

“This week, introducing myself is an ill-omened act.”

“……”

Lee Han quickly decided to just call him Bronze Golem Senior.

He was afraid getting to know him by name would make things even more familiar.

“Golem Senior. You can at least tell me the lecture’s content, can’t you?”

“Of course. I honestly doubt it’s a good idea, but since the professor approved…”

Golem Senior beckoned with a creaking bronze finger.

As Lee Han stepped forward, the senior quickly stopped him.

“Wait.”

“?”

“Start with your right foot. For the next three days, you’ll have good luck if you start with your right foot.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han accepted without further surprise.

By now, he wasn’t naïve enough to be shocked at adding one more crazy senior to his life.

Walking behind with his right foot forward (Golem Senior whistled to the side every five steps), Lee Han asked cautiously.

“About what you’re doing now… that… strange… no… anyway, could you explain these actions a bit more?”

“Not difficult.”

Golem Senior was relatively kind in explaining to the rare junior.

Prophecy mages practiced reading the uncertain future with varied and complex divinations as accurately as possible, while also thinking of ways to make use of that future to their benefit.

One of those methods was ‘avoiding unfavorable futures and steering toward favorable ones.’

“Is that possible? The more clearly you see the future, the higher the price you must pay…”

“You aren’t seeing the future directly. You just figure out the constraints—actions that avoid misfortune and bring luck.”

Golem Senior was a skilled prophecy mage.

Each week, in order to figure out which actions brought luck and which avoided misfortune, he used three kinds of divination and five types of magic.

‘Remarkable.’

Lee Han was amazed listening to the senior’s magical theory.

He’d heard that prophecy magic was particularly unstable and strange, even among the Empire’s magic schools, but seeing that this was possible surprised him.

“How effective is it?”

“This week I’ve found fewer lucky actions, so it might be lacking…”

Golem Senior rummaged through his pocket, found a die, and rolled it several times. Five sixes in a row appeared, then finally a different number.

“Ah. If it were last week, I’d have gotten more.”

“…!”

Lee Han was shocked.

It was much luckier than he’d imagined.

Crash!

The ceiling of the workshop suddenly caved in and a brick went flying for Golem Senior’s head.

On instinct, Lee Han swung his staff and telekinetically launched the brick away.

“Are you all right?!”

“How did you…? Anyway, dodge!”

“?”

Even before the words finished, a spirit vortex formed inside the workshop. The gust dragged the flying brick back.

Inevitably, the brick crashed into Golem Senior’s head.

Bang!

“Guh. Seems I didn’t set enough lucky constraints this week.”

“What was that just now?!”

“Luck and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. Use up luck, and misfortune comes. Never mind. That’s why I became a golem. Here, this week’s material from -Prophecies Most Likely to Drive You Mad-.”

Golem Senior swung his staff and extracted the week’s lesson from a book.

The -Prophecies Most Likely to Drive You Mad- lecture would deal with not just simple, intuitive divinations, but also complex and powerful ones… (omitted)… Divinations worth attempting for prophecy mages are as follows…

Spirit Coin Divination

-Toss five specially crafted gold coins and offer those that land heads-up to a summoned spirit. The more coins you offer, the more accurate the spirit’s prophecy will be…

‘What a horrific and cruel divination.’

Demon of Five Divination

-Summon a demon hidden in the future and record five prophecies. If you fail to identify the two false ones, you receive a powerful curse of misfortune…

‘Oh. This one’s much better.’

Seeing his junior diligently take notes, Golem Senior grew uneasy and spoke up.

“Don’t practice or learn these all at once. This is just to introduce you to advanced divinations that exist. No need to rush ahead, understand?”

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Don’t practice alone—use this shadow office. Since it came up, you want to practice one right now?”

Golem Senior did not trust his junior much.

A student hungry enough to take all magic schools might well go to his own quarters and practice each divination alone.

Lee Han, who had no intention of practicing alone as the senior advised, thought to himself.

‘As expected of an Einrogard senior—strict as always.’

Saying there’s no need to rush, yet immediately making him practice.

The words of Einrogard seniors could never be trusted.

“I’d like to try the Demon of Five Divination.”

“Hmmm. All right.”

Seeing a junior choosing the demon divination over the coin one, Golem Senior was even more convinced.

Wizards came in two kinds.

The ones who started with the easy spells, and those who jumped right into the hardest!

And unlike other schools, the prophecy magic school had a higher dropout rate among the latter. They had to be watched very closely.

“Prepare the following materials and summon the demon hidden in the future. Just summoning the demon itself is no easy task, so don’t rush. Got it?”

“Yes.”

Lee Han took out the reagents listed in the book, one by one.

Clown mushroom picked during the new moon, bone shard obtained from the demon realm among the dimensions, cinnabar to write the name of the future…

“Sacrificing my misfortune, I ask for five prophecies: come, tempting demon. Appear.”

“Try again, but more slowly.”

Golem Senior, watching Lee Han’s precise actions, incantation, and mana expenditure, thought this junior might face fewer errors than expected.

He’d been worried whether the junior could keep up with a third-year lecture, but it seemed the professor had good reason to approve him.

“Senior. Didn’t I just summon it?”

“What?”

Golem Senior turned his neck using his creaking bronze joint.

Then, seeing the glinting demon mouth in the middle of the circle, he freaked out.

“?!?!”

Astoundingly, this junior had summoned the demon in one try!

“Do you have any demon blood in your veins??”

“Not that I know of.”

“Is the Wardanaz family closely connected to demons?”

“Uh… a little…?”

Wondering if using demons as slaves counted as a close connection, Lee Han responded ambiguously.

Golem Senior was slightly satisfied by that answer.

A wizard with demon blood or a house with demon ties always had an easier time with such magic.

The same rule as elementals to elementalists.

…Still, summoning in one shot was remarkable…

“Didn’t think you’d manage a one-shot summon. That why you picked the demon divination? Clever?”

“Haha. Thank you.”

That wasn’t really why, but wanting a good impression on a fellow school member, Lee Han nodded.

“I thought since you take all magic schools’ lectures, you were the type to risk your life for magic just like the professor.”

“……”

Lee Han cursed Golem Senior in his heart.

Maybe it was the cold, metallic heart—he was awfully rude.

“All right, then. Take your time and ask for prophecies.”

“Give me the prophecies.”

-You will face an ancient being…

“……”

“Is this one false?”

Golem Senior guessed from the side.

Even in Einrogard, meeting an ancient being was rare.

-You must not wander outside at daytime or midnight…

“Hm. This seems false too.”

This was a constraint, rather than a prophecy, but it was an excessively harsh one.

Golem Senior cast a dubious look.

He himself used constraints to boost luck and suppress misfortune, but this one was overly broad.

-You will crush the wizards of other cradles pitilessly…

“Isn’t this one false?” Lee Han asked quietly.

Golem Senior shook his head.

“Of the three so far, this sounds the most plausible. Cradles means other magic schools, I suppose. There are chances you’ll run into them.”

“But why would I crush them…”

“That’s just wizards’ pride. Shh, or you’ll miss the prophecy.”

-You will become addicted to Tombstone Mountain…

-A spirit will tempt you…

“The first and second, maybe.”

“My guess is a bit different. Demon, the fourth and fifth are false!”

“?!”

-Unfortunate… I await your arrogance and ruin…

The demon faded into the future with obvious regret.

Golem Senior blinked his lens aperture in astonishment at his junior’s talent.

‘The professor didn’t say that just out of laziness!’

When Professor Paselete left that card—‘The student is more than capable of keeping up, even if you miss a class’—he’d thought it was just laziness, but it was true after all.

“Senior. I’d like to learn how to change a prophesied future!”

“Oh dear. Don’t rush. The more you rush, the more dangerous it gets.”

“It feels more dangerous to do nothing right now…”